Leaves in Autumn
by Amberdiamondswords
Summary: Ratchet is forced to rake leaves as a form of community service, but maybe, with some help from Clank, it won't be as boring as he thought it would be.


**Weekly Oneshot #11: Leaves in Autumn**

"I'm. So. Bored!" Ratchet complained as he pulled in another leaf haul with his rake and adding it into the smaller pile.

Clank observed the larger pile of leaves that was behind the Lombax, amazed at how big it was already, then he walked to to his friend. "Well maybe you should have thought twice about piloting that station into the city."

"Meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh-meh. _Meh_." The Lombax mimicked what Clank had said with the word 'meh', and then he pushed the robot onto his bottom with the rake. Then the Lombax returned to his job. "I still can't believe that I have to rake this whole place. I've saved this city tons of time, and this is the thanks I get!"

After defeating Mr. Dinkles, Ratchet had offered to pilot Dinkles station back to Metropolis (because Dr. Nefarious had stolen their ship). He thought that the only punishment that he would receive was getting a ticket and being forced to take a class online, but nope. Turns out that the mayor of Metropolis was tired of Ratchet's constant reckless piloting and damage causing, so, in addition to the ticket and class, Ratchet had to do some community service. It was the season of autumn in the city, and the many trees in the many parks were beginning to shed their leaves, and they needed to be raked. Ratchet, much to his dismay, was assigned to one of the bigger parks, and he wasn't allowed to leave until every single leaf was inside of a trashbag and waiting to be shipped off to the dump.

It was currently hour five of leaf raking, and Ratchet was growing restless. The temperature was currently dipping into the forties and the winds were picking up a little. However, the Lombax came prepared with a brown jacket and a short, light gray scarf. Even Clank was wearing a short black scarf (though he didn't actually need one). Ratchet had told the robot that he didn't have to come with him, but Clank insisted, he feared that the Lombax would get lonely...also that he would ditch the job.

Clank, who was now on his rear, sat next to the piles of leaves that Ratchet was building. He looked up saw the very bored and unamused expression on his friend's face. "I would help you, Ratchet, but I am too small to use a rake."

"Yeah, I know that, pal. At least you came along, though. It's like your presence is my motivation."

"Motivation? How so?"

"Right now, I hear, like, this voice in the back of my head. And it's telling me: 'dude, your friend is totally bored of being here. Hurry up and finish so you can play video games with him'. "

Clank gave a little giggle, "I cannot help but agree with that voice. We have been here for nearly five hours now, and the temperature seems to be dropping every hour."

"Don't tell me that, you'll make me feel more cold!" Ratchet said, hauling in another pile of leaves.

"I am sorry," the little robot said with an apologetic face. He then took a moment to look around the park, his little black scarf flowing with the wind. After observing the surrounding area, he looked back up at his friend. "You seem to be making very good progress. With the current rate of your work, I estimate that you will be done within the next two hours."

"Two hours?! Ugh!" The Lombax moaned as he got down onto his knees. This was the part when he grabbed handfuls of leaves and chuck them into the pile behind him. He would have simply raked them into the pile, but throwing them was more fun. So, Ratchet, who was still feeling tired, closed his eyes and began throwing leaves behind him. Then he started ranting. "This stupid raking is taking up our entire Saturday! I swear, the next time there's an invasion here, we're not going to help unless the mayor himself has to rake one of the parks, see how he likes it! We don't have time to be sitting around and doing community service we've got our own business to deal with. Speaking of which, that guy who dropped off the dented hovercar will be coming to pick it up tomorrow, and we've barely started! I'm tellin' ya, Clank, we should just move to another planet, or just go back to Veldin. Because the rules here can be so uptight...granted, yes, I did steer an entire station here, but that's not the point! The point is that-"

"Oof!"

Ratchet's ears twitched as he tossed what felt to be a heavier pile of leaves behind him, and the pile landed with an 'oof'. At first he was very confused, then he realized how familiar that 'oof' sounded. He looked down at the ground and saw that there were no leaves...and no Clank. He had thrown the robot into the leaf pile by accident. Ratchet looked behind him and was a little dent inside the very large leaf pile, signifying that Clank had sunk into the leaves, most likely due to his superior weight. The Lombax scooted over to the leaves and looked around the pile for any sign of his friend.

"I'm sorry Clank, I though that you were leaves! Alright, let's see...where did you go?" Ratchet buried his hands into the pile and felt around, trying to find any sort of hard surface. He moved his arms left and right, forward and backward, up and down, but he still couldn't find Clank. He spread out a little bit and felt the surrounding leafy areas, but he still couldn't locate the little robot. After feeling around for a few more moments, Ratchet pulled his hands out of the leaves and placed them on his waist. Where did that robot go? Clank must have landed where that dent was, so how was he so lost? It was while he was wondering that Ratchet noticed a little bump in the pile...and it was moving. The Lombax watched the bump move around for a few moments, but then he stood up and walked over to where it was. He knew what was making the leaves move around. "There you are! Alright, come towards me and I'll-hey!" When he tried to touch the little bump, it quickly moved away from him. It kept doing that whenever he tried to get near it. Ratchet then took a moment to realize something...

Clank was totally messing with him.

It appeared that the little robot was playing some sort of game with Ratchet, and the Lombax wasn't going to tolerate that. He jumped at the moving leaves and said, "Pal, come on, get over here." His ears lowered as the pile moved even farther from him. He chased the hidden robot for a few more moments, and he was trying to get tired of it. However, he couldn't help but have his voice crack and laugh a bit as he spoke again, "Clank, come here!" His ears twitched again as he heard faint laughter coming from the leaves. After a few more seconds of chasing, Ratchet finally had the robot cornered. He got low, waved his tail around a little, then he jumped onto the little bump, "Aha! Gotcha!"

Clank's head popped out of the leaves as Ratchet managed to grab his torso. He giggled a bunch when he saw the look on Ratchet's face. And he kept giggling when the Lombax flicked him on the head with every word that he said.

"You. Little. Troublemaker!"

"What is the problem? You claimed that you were bored, so I helped you have fun," Clank said innocently, attempting and slightly failing at seizing his laughter.

Ratchet smiled and then laughed a little, "Yeah, that actually was kinda fun. But something tells me that you had more fun than me."

Clank let out a few guilty giggles, and Ratchet nuzzled his antenna playfully. After that, a wind blew through the park, making a few of the leaves fly away with it. Ratchet and Clank shielded their faces from the wind as both of their scarves attempted to fly away as well. After that, the Lombax placed his hand on top of his friend's head and looked around the park area. He actually took a moment to see the beauty that was the autumn season, which he had never really done before. But it really was beautiful, and Clank thought so too. However, the scenery was taken away when Ratchet noticed that there were still many, many leaves that needed to be raked, and he hadn't even started on putting them in trash bags. However, that little game that he just played with Clank really got him into a playful mood. Maybe it was time for a little break...and Clank was already way ahead of him.

The little robot suddenly started giggling again and he dove back into the leaves. Ratchet started laughing and he looked around, attempting to find his friend. "Hey! You come back here!"

The two played around for the rest of the day. Ratchet honestly didn't think that he would ever finish raking up all of the leaves, but he didn't care. He was more focused on acting like an eight-year-old with his best friend, and he would take that over raking any day. It was days like this one that surely proved that he and Clank would be friends for as long as they lived.

"Where did you go...AH! There you are!"

"Hehehehehe!"

* * *

 **So a bit of a shorter oneshot this week, but last week's was REALLY long, so I think that it's reasonable.**

 **I was actually going to have this one about the two playing in the snow, but since it's autumn (where I am, at least), I thought that having them play in the leaves would be more appropriate. I'll save the snow one for next month.**

 **Yeah, I love fics about Ratchet and Clank playing each other like they're kids, I always thought that it was the cutest thing! It really shows the brother like bond between them, which I love.**

 **Oh, and the new chapter of Organic Ordeal is FINALLY here! Go and check it out, because I need requests...badly.**

 **Make sure to leave a review while picking up your complimentary toaster! This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!**


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